Man Assaulted Former Worker

Man Assaulted Former Worker

Posted By
Attorney Robert H. Humprhey

.As reported by Jaqueline Tempera in the November 2, 2015 edition of the
Providence Journal, a Providence man has been charged with felony assault,
assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. The man is a former
restaurant owner who is accused of owning money to some of his former
employees. The employees can to the man’s house to protest. He hit
one of the workers in the stomach with a bat. He was later arrested by police.

Pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 11-5-2, felony assault is defined
as every person who shall make an assault or battery, or both, with a
dangerous weapon, or with acid or other dangerous substance, or by fire,
or an assault or battery which results in serious bodily injury.

(b) Where the provisions of "The Domestic Violence Prevention Act",
chapter 29 of title 12, are applicable, the penalties for violation of
this section shall also include the penalties as provided in § 12-29-5.

(c) "Serious bodily injury" means physical injury that:

(1) Creates a substantial risk of death;

(2) Causes protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily
part, member or organ; or

(3) Causes serious permanent disfigurement or circumcises, excises or infibulates
the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris
of a person.

In this case, the man is accused of assaulting with a dangerous weapon,
a baseball bat. It does not appear that the woman was seriously injured.
The penalties if convicted of felony assault include imprisonment for
not more than twenty (20) years and a possible no-contact order with the victim.

Assaulting a police officer, defined in R.I.G.L. 11-5-5, includes any person
who shall make an assault or battery, or both, by knowingly and willfully
either (1) striking, or (2) spraying with a noxious chemical, commonly
used as a personal defense weapon, including Mace and an oleoresin capsicum
product or like products, a uniformed member of the state police or metropolitan
park police, environmental police officer, state properties patrol officer,
probation and parole officers, state government case worker or investigator,
judge of the supreme, superior, family, district court, traffic tribunal
or municipal court, deputy sheriff, city or town police officer or firefighter,
member of the capitol police, member of campus security force of state
colleges and universities, member of the Rhode Island airport police department,
member of the Rhode Island fugitive task force, Rhode Island public transit
authority bus driver, or on-duty plainclothes member of the town, city,
or state police force, investigator of the department of the attorney
general appointed pursuant to § 42-9-8.1, or member of the railroad
police after proper identification is displayed, or uniformed dog officer,
or out-of-state police officer called into Rhode Island under a cooperative
agreement to provide mutual aid at the request of the state of Rhode Island
pursuant to chapter 37 of title 42, or assistant attorney general or special
assistant attorney general, or employees of the department of environmental
management responsible for administrative inspections or any constable
authorized by chapter 45-16 of the Rhode Island general law causing bodily
injury while the officer or official is engaged in the performance of
his or her duty.

This is also a felony charge and punishable by imprisonment not exceeding
three (3) years, or fined not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500), or both.